St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-28
A STRANGE CAREER.
A Romance of Crime Extending
From the Cradle to the Grave.

cial says: The mystery of strange
life has been solved and wonderfully
romantic story of criminal adventure
has been brought out by the Identified
ton of the late DR.. Andrew Jackson
Grant, bigamist and confidence man, as
the famous Fenian leader, DR.. Louis
Contri, who was an illegitimate son of
Victor Emanuel, king of Italy. The
last words of this remarkable man, as
he lay dy ng in Cambridge jail last
April, were: "The world shall never
know me as | was" Nevertheless, his
secret has been probed, and the career
which is exposed will find none to
match it. The doctors disguise was
pierced several weeks before his death by
one or two persons who knew him years
ago as Dr.. Contri, but they did not ex-
pose him. He was then awaiting trial for
bigamy and sWindling Miss Lucy TORY,
had lived to go into court the whole
story would probably have come out,
for many persons hereabOutS knew the
Fenian leader Intimately previous to
1872. These persons have fully identi-
fled Dr.. Grants photograph since his
death as that of DR.. Contri. According
to this story he was born in Austria, but
was the son of Victor Emanuel and
Archduchess Adelhird, of Austria. He
was born in 1912, two months before
Victor Emanuel and the archducheSs
were united in marriage. Victor Eman-
uel was at that time king of Sardinia,
and did not succeed to the throne of
Italy until 1861. When but mere child
he was transferred to the custody of an
old abbot in Switzerland, by whom he
was carefully schOOled in the sciences.
Among other things he made a speciality
of language, and so proficient had he
become that he could speak at least five
with fuency. The old abbot be-
came, as it were, parent to him,
and finally the young mans desire to
know something of his parentage be-
came SO strong that the good old priest
told him all, even to the stain upon his
birth. When the young man grew up
he went to Sardinia and openly con-
spired against the king, and was forced
to fly. His alleged father supplied him
with money. He came to America with
DR.. McSheehy, and when the war broke
out he enlisted in New York regiment.
His connection with
THE FENIAN RAID ON CANADA
is well known. 1t was his ventures in
the marriage line that gave him his
widest reputation. When he came to
this country he left wife in Germany,
but soon after landing here he took an
other. Little is known of his army life
except the fact that he was taken pris-
oner and sent to Richmond some months
before the fall of the Southern capital.
He there made the acquaintance of Miss
Virginia Saunders, a neice of
Aaron Burr among women, and
he easily won the heart of Miss Saun-
ders. Hardly had peace been declared
before COntri married her and flew with
her to Canada. They had lived in Mon
treal few months only when his young
bride died, leaving him once more free
man, for his little German wife had OBJ
tanned divorce on account of his de-
SertiOn. He returned at once to the
states, and arrived DIN Boston in the
spring of 1886, when Fenianism was at
its height. He went into the struggle
body and soul, and was among the first
to enroll himself in the rank and file
then preparing for raid on Canada.
So energetic was he that when the Fe-
mans left Boston he was a colonel. In
1869 he married Mrs. Jane Delaney, of
Boston, who had $40, 1000 in bank. When
that was gone he deserted her. He next
married Miss Mary Ditson, of Hudson
river town. For this he was sentenced
to Sing Sing for two years, but secured
his release after three months. He then
dropped the name of Contri.
In 1880 he appeared in London under
the name of DR.. Grant, and advertised
as specialist and lecturer extensively
on mind curing. Being again involved
in scandal. he secretly left London and
returned to the United States. He
learned that his first wife had procured
a divorce from him, and had gone to
live in Chicago. He went there, and it
is believed that while in that city he OBJ
tanned medical degrees from local dis
pensary under the name of A. j. Perry,
by which name he became fairly we'll
known. He figured conspicuously in
the lecture rooms of the West and South
as man of learning and uncommon
eloquence. Newspaper notices of his
lectures were found in scrap book in
his trunk after his arrest in Clayton. n.
j., in March last. 1t was while out upon
lecture tour that he first met and mar
ried the woman who is known as Kate
Ray, his sister. Together they con-
Spired to
do UP'' THE LARGE WATERING PLACES
of the country. In the summer of 's4 he
and his sister were at Old Orchard
Beach, under the name of DR.. Perry.
He claimed to be an extremely wealthy
EngliShman, with untold possessions in
Australia. The woman he passed off as
his sister, he said, also possessed great
wealth. Among the visitors to the
beach was Miss Emma Kanes, of st.
Thomas, Canada, whom he married in
short order. He secured nearly $4,000
from her and then left her. He pro-
posed to number of other women and
became engaged to Mrs. Williams,
rich widow of kennebunk, Me. The
timely interference of friends saved her.
At Revere Beach he laid siege to the
heart of Miss Riddle, of Winchester,
n. H., proposed and was rejected. He
visited, with his alleged sister, New
pert, Nantucket, Long Branch. Bar
and resorts in the White mount
aims. In 1885 he opened a doc
tors Office in Boston. He was
soon engaged to marry three
ladies, and after robbing them of all
they had he decamped. In March, 1885,
he paid court to Mrs. Annie Bulger,
dressmaker of Brooklyn, and finally
promised to marry her. AT the same
time he was carrying on similar ar
rangement with Mary Sturgis, of New
York city. He fed on the night he
agreed to marry both, taking all they
possessed. even their clothes. He next
turned up at Littleton, n. H.. where he
married Miss Lucy Torrey. of Cam
bridge. This Melted him $4,000. After
that affair DR.. Grant went into hiding
in Clayton, n. j.. where some time pre-
viously he had purchased comfortable
little farm. After he had robbed the
Cambridge lady DR.. Grant and his so
called sister uuarreled over the Spoils.
The doctor went to his home and Kate
went West. Detective Ducey, of Cam
bridge, got on his track, and after some
futile work arrested him at Clayton, n.
j., early in March. He was taken back
10 Cambridge and committed to the